i read. i write. i think. i link.

All of the information coming from St Louis regarding this shooting seems to be comprised mostly of buzzwords and devoid of any type of real information. I’m beginning an outline of questions I have regarding this, and I think we all deserve the answers to them.

The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. in the 4100 block of Shaw Boulevard in south St. Louis when the officer attempted a “pedestrian check,” St. Louis police spokeswoman Schron Jackson said in an email. Police did not elaborate on what a pedestrian check is or why it is done.

Jackson said the officer was working a department-approved security job and wearing his uniform when he confronted the pedestrian.

“The male suspect fled on foot,” Jackson said. “The officer pursued the suspect. The suspect turned and fired a gun at the officer. Fearing for his safety, the officer returned fire, striking the suspect, fatally wounding him. The officer was not injured.”

I know most departments have a rule against officers moonlighting elsewhere, so I need a clearer definition of what a “department-approved security job” means. Was he acting as a police officer providing security for someone/something, or was his second job department-approved?

When they say he was wearing a uniform, what type of uniform was he wearing? Was he wearing a police uniform, or was he wearing a security guard uniform?

If a security guard were to try to detain me as I was minding my own business walking down the street with my sandwich, I’d probably tell him to go fuck himself, especially after the last “neighborhood watch guard” who made the news did so by killing his supposed suspect.

Some of the earlier statements published last night indicated that Myers was with a group of friends. Where are they? Have they been detained? Have they been questioned? Were they even stopped?

The headline on this St Louis Post-Dispatch article says that the officer was off-duty, but also states he was wearing a uniform. Again, we need clarification — police uniform or security guard uniform? And if he was off-duty, why was he performing a “pedestrian check”?

The article also states that there were a total of four people that the officer supposedly stopped to talk to. Again, why did he stop them? If he was on his second job working for a private security company, why did he suddenly switch gears back into police officer mode? Is that even legal?

There are more questions than answers in this situation, and with what already happened in Ferguson with the Mike Brown shooting, I don’t know if we will ever get any real answers.